B28 LIJFM ON T&JB MISSISSIPPI.
be ignorant of this great truth, and wander off into astronomy to I
borrow a symbol. But if he had been conversant with the facts b
would have said—
Westward the Jug of Empire takes its way.
This great van-leader arrived upon the ground which Si Pad
now occupies, in June 1837. Yes, at that date, Pierre Parranta
Canadian, built the first cabin, uncorked his jug, and began to sdl
whiskey to the Indians. The result is before us.
All that I have said of the newness, briskness, swift progress,
wealth, intelligence, fine and substantial architecture, and general
slash and go, and energy of St. Paul, will apply to his near neighbour,
Minneapolis—with the addition that the latter is the bigger of tha
two cities.
These extraordinary towns were ten miles apart, a few moo&s
ago, but were growing so fast that they may possibly be joined now,
and getting along under a single mayor. At any rate, within five
years from now there will be at least such a substantial ligament of
buildings stretching between them and uniting them that a strange
will not be able to tell where the one Siamese twin leaves off and tfee
other begins. Combined, they will then number a population of two
hundred and fifty thousand, if they continue to grow as they are now
growing. Thus, this centre of population at the head of Missis-
sippi navigation, will then begin a rivalry as to numbers, with that
centre of population at the foot of it—New Orleans.
Minneapolis is situated at the falls of St. Anthony, which stretch
across the river, fifteen hundred feet, and have a fall of eighty-two
feefc—a waterpower which, by art, has been made of inestimable value,
business-wise, though somewhat to the damage of the Falls as a spec-
tacle, or as a background against which to get your photograph taken.
Thirty flouring-mills turn out two million barrels of the veij
choicest of flour every year; twenty sawmills produce two hundred
million feet of lumber annually; then there are woollen milla, CQ&OB
mills, paper and oil mills ', and sash, nail, furniture, barrel, and other
factories, without number, so to speak. The great flouring-mills here
and at St Paul use the ' new process' and mash the wheat by rolling
instead of grinding it.